I have been horribly negligent....

I have not updated in several weeks... almost months.  I am sorry for that but I am in the midst of doing everything but quilting.  I did make the back for Molly's quilt and took it off to the long arm quilter.  I considered trying to quilt it myself but she wanted a minky back and I only have so much patience.  I am also in the midst of moving.  I have not packed up all my quilting stuff but I have packed up a lot of it.  I feel very much like this cat looks about now... 

So, I will be back as soon as we are settled.  Or if I have some time in the evenings and think about it, I may take this time to post some of the items I have done in the past.  

Ready for Quilting!

I knew this one wouldn't take too long at all, and it would have been done even sooner had we stayed in town for spring break.  But it was nice to get out and relax for a week and not have to worry about anything. Here is is all pressed and ready to be quilted.

The only issue is that I did not pay as much attention to the size as I thought and it is slightly larger than the backing I had planned to use.  I told Molly that she could have a fuzzy purple back so it looks like I am going to have to go with minky on the back.  Not my favorite thing to work with as it is stretchy and slippery and messy!  I hope I have enough of the purple stripe left for the binding... I think I do but it will be close!

Getting Started on Molly's Quilt

I have started cutting out fabric for my next quilt... AND finished!  After all the little pieces in the last quilt, I decided to work on an easier project.

This took maybe 2 hours to cut out including interruptions as it was all from a jelly roll and all I had to measure was length.  I even sewed a few of the 9 patches together last night.

This is sooooooo much easier than the last one was, a much needed break from all the little pieces.  I will enjoy making this for her and I hope she loves it as much as I love the little animals on the fabric!

The Celtic Solstice Top is Pieced!!!

I have finally finished the top of Celtic Solstice!!!  Here is a picture of it on top of my bed.  I made the king size and it is BIG.  (Especially on my queen size bed.)  This hangs to the floor on all sides and it is a fairly tall bed.

Celtic Solstice Top

I don't really have another way to take a picture so you can see the entire top as it is windy and snowing outside right now.  I will just take that picture after it is quilted.  Here is a picture slightly closer up of the top and one of the border.

Close Up

Borders

I decided I liked the zig-zag effect the Tri-Recs made when placed like they are here.  I also decided to stick with the scrappy theme of the quilt and added the green borders as two sets of two inch strips pieced together instead of just one green fabric.

Overall, I like how it turned out.  I'm glad I decided to make this and it is officially my first Bonnie Hunter quilt.  I have followed her online for a while and always enjoy seeing all her quilts and classes and travels.  What a delight it was to make this and also to see all of the other Celtic Solstice quilts that were made by her other followers.

I will get started on Molly's quilt soon... I went by the quilt shop and picked up my coordinating border fabric for the pattern.  This one should go by much quicker as it is only going to be a twin size!

too many options for borders... Help!!

I have made some amazing amounts of progress this week but now I am stuck.  I need to make the middle border and though I have all the pieces, I have not yet decided how to arrange them.  Here is what I have it narrowed down to:

The top is the original from the pattern but I can change the direction of the squares to make other patterns for the border.  These are the ones I like but I can't seem decide on one.  Help!!!

Still sewing away...

I have only made a bit of progress this week... but I hope to have the top pieced by this weekend.  I tend to be pretty motivated once I get to this point in a quilt.  I finished all 60 of the second block this weekend...

54-40 or Fight!

And then I trimmed up the edges of all 121 blocks...

That is a lot of blocks!

I haven't seen a pile that high of blocks in a while!  They are 9 1/2 inches now (to be 9 inches in the quilt) so it takes quite a few to make a king size quilt.  After I put the kids to bed last night I sat down with a beer and laid them all out into rows so they are now all ready to sew together.  I will start sewing them into rows this evening.

There was one four-patch that was facing the wrong direction.  I think it ended up in row four.  Not too bad to get one wrong out of 300.  I considered taking it out and fixing it but as I had already trimmed and such I decided to leave it in there.  I can't imagine that anyone else would ever even notice it.  It will just be there to remind me that that a little bit of imperfection is part of life.  

I am not even finished with this quilt and I am already thinking about the next one I am going to put together. It is Molly's turn for a quilt and I have had the materials for hers for some time.  It was supposed to be the next quilt like 3 quilts ago... then came the quilt for Christmas... and this one... but no worries!  I am going to do hers next!  It is a 9 patch pattern so it shouldn't take very long to do at all.  Here is the pattern I chose.  I found a super cute jelly roll some time ago that has adorable little owls and snails and such on it and when I found this pattern I knew that was what I would use it for.

I still need to get something to use for the coordinating non-white part of the border.  I also want to put a fuzzy purple blanket on the back of it for her as she loved that I did that with Gabe's quilt last year. 

Gabe's quilt not doing a swell job of hiding his messy, messy bed.

Sew much to do and always too little time!!

Block Two of Celtic Solstice

So, when I started this quilt I thought to myself, "there are 5 steps and a reveal (step 6) and they are released weekly so this is like a 6 week commitment. right???"  Boy was I misguided!  Don't get me wrong, I am loving making it and still anticipating how it will look when it is all put together, but I am close to 8 weeks now and I am just starting to put together the second set of blocks.  I finished the first 61 on Sunday and pressed the last 10 or so last night.

The only issue I had with these blocks is that the seams from the Chevrons and the Pinwheels were going the same direction on the majority of my blocks.  As they weren't on all the blocks and I know my pinwheels were all pressed the same direction, I guess I pressed the wrong way on most (but not all) the chevrons.  This lead to some bulky seams in the middle of these blocks.  I would guess that they would have been a bit less bulky if I had opted to turn the chevron to make stars instead but I really liked this composition for the block.  No worries though, the individual blocks still lay flat which is what is important to me.  

Now I have a whole new set of piles to sew together for the next block....

While this does not look as intimidating as the last set, there is only one less block to be made from these.  That means that due to less seams in these parts they lay flatter and look like less but really they are not.  I put a couple together last night to see how they would look. 

They are ending up the correct size and all.  I can already tell that my issue with this block is going to be keeping the colors on the 4-patches all going the correct direction.  I tend to get distracted, though it appears if the block is turned then they go the opposite... so maybe I only have to make sure they are all going the same direction in each block!  That would certainly be easier!